(VOVworld) – Nearly 3,000 protesters on Sunday attended a rally in Lenin Square in Donetsk, Eastern Ukraine, demanding a referendum on Ukraine’s federalisation.

Pro-Russian protesters at a rally on Sunday in the Lenin Square, Donetsk.

Meanwhile, hundreds of protesters gathered in the central square of Kharkov city, demanding the same thing and expressing their sympathy with other protesters in southeastern Ukraine, united in opposition to the Kiev government. Ukraine-federalisation supporters in Lugansk province held demonstrations urging the Ukrainian government to offer amnesty to all protesters, recognise Russian as an official language, and hold a referendum on the region’s future.
Amid escalating demonstrations and violence in Eastern Ukraine, the Ukrainian government continues to mobilise troops for a military campaign. The Russian defense ministry on Sunday said Ukraine has deployed 11,000 soldiers, 400 tanks and armoured vehicles, and several “Grad” and “Smerch” missile systems near the city of Slavyansk, Eastern Ukraine. The Russian Ministry said Ukraine’s massing of tanks and artillery is not a police activity, but an assembling of a force to destroy the city.
The same day, a mission of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) came to Slavyansk to persuade the protesters to release their 8 captured observers.